Surgeons have techniques and implants to perform stable internal fixation of the human body. Current technology has the ability to stabilize fractures or to securely attach implants to bones in the case of elective or emergent medical conditions. However, when surgery is performed, there is limited visualization of a bone in a surgical field (i.e., most of the bone is still covered by skin and other soft tissues). This is partially intentional (in the case of minimally invasive surgery) and partially due to the nature of surgical technique. Surgeons intentionally try to minimize surgical exposure to avoid iatrogenic injury to soft tissues, to avoid devascularization, and to minimize post-operative recovery for patients. Due to these reasons, the limited amount of exposed bone makes it difficult to judge the alignment of an implant on the full length of the bone. Consequently, it is difficult for a surgeon to apply an implant perfectly collinear to the bone. This becomes evident only after surgery, when x-rays are taken and it is shown that the implant is not aligned collinear with the bone. The difficulty to align a plate to a bone is equally applicable to bones of the upper extremities, lower extremities, and spine. It is also applicable to surgical technique in human beings, dogs, cats, horses, goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, and the like.
Consequently, a need exists for an alignment apparatus or device that facilitates the accurate alignment of an orthopedic implant to a bone attachment site that is at least partially out-of-view of the surgeon. It is toward such an alignment device that the present disclosure is directed.